


Bread-Scented Candle

by oorrrt



Category: ONEUS (Band)
Genre: Apartment AU, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-07-08 13:22:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19870333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oorrrt/pseuds/oorrrt
Summary: “I burned a hole into the wall in my room,” Geonhak announced over dinner.Hwanwoong rolled his eyes.  “What do you want me to do about it?”“The wall’s fine,” Geonhak waved it off.  “But one of the kids next door, Dongju?  He keeps winking at me through the hole.”Hwanwoong grimaced.  “Then do this back at him,” he said, and made a kissy face at Geonhak.Geonhak’s eyes widened.Hwanwoong cackled and walked away, leaving all his dishes on the table.-Oneus all lives in the same apartment complex comedy au





	1. Geonhak

**Author's Note:**

> insp : live oneus ep. 7. just trying to get some writing out. unedited, written in one sitting at 4am, all the works. this chapter is just xion/leedo the others will hopefully come soon

“I burned a hole into the wall in my room,” Geonhak announced over dinner.

Hwanwoong’s eyes widened. “You never told me you were planning to burn down the building! I could’ve given you tips but–”

Geonhak drummed his fingers on the table. “ _Obviously_ I didn’t do it on purpose! I was trying to light the candle.”

“Candles aren’t allowed in this apartment complex, hyung. What if I told the main office?”

Geonhak narrowed his eyes. “You live with me! You knew I had the candle! And! And you’d get kicked out too! Anyways, you’re saying you would’ve given me tips on how to burn down the building, but you’re going to tell on me for having a candle? Now?”

“Why are you so agitated? Of course not,” Hwanwoong scoffed. “Tell on you? What is this, middle school?”

Geonhak crossed his arms. “Looking at _you_ , it could be.”

Hwanwoong gasped, his face a caricature of surprise. “Taking a dig at my height is low, even for you!”

“Your height _is_ low,” Geonhak offered.

Hwanwoong glared at him before just getting up and trying to walk away.

“ _Wait!”_ Geonhak grabbed his arm. Hwanwoong stopped but didn’t turn back around. “You don’t look like a middle schooler,” Geonhak continued. “Your face looks old. You could be in your forties!”

Hwanwoong whipped around, seething, eyes narrowed. His irritation would have been concerning if Geonhak hadn’t lived with him for the past two years. “What the _hell_ is your problem, Kim Geonhak-ssi?”

Geonhak clasped his hands together. “I’m sorry. _Please_ help me.”

Hwanwoong rolled his eyes. It looked like it hurt. “What do you want me to do about the fact that you burnt your wall?”

“The wall’s fine,” Geonhak waved it off. “But one of the kids next door, Dongju? He keeps winking at me through the hole.”

Hwanwoong grimaced. “Then do this back at him,” he said, and made a kissy face at Geonhak.

Geonhak’s eyes widened.

Hwanwoong cackled and walked away, leaving all his dishes on the table.

***

It all started when Son Dongju moved in next door.

No, it all started when Seoho gifted Geonhak a candle.

“Look, it’s bread scented,” Seoho said, shoving a tall candle into his face. “Don’t you love bread?”

“No.” Geonhak took the candle out of Seoho’s hands before he could drop it and shatter the glass, making yet another mess in his apartment. “I don’t care about bread. Why did you get me this.”

“It’s a gift, because I love you.”

“You could’ve just helped clean up my kitchen after you exploded your leftovers in my microwave.”

Seoho flapped his hands around. “I have no clue what you’re talking about, I just got you this as a fun present, completely out of the blue, just because I’m nice and thoughtful! No need to be so _difficult._ ”

Geonhak sighed before rummaging around his cabinet for a lighter. He found one and lit the candle out of courtesy, putting it on his kitchen countertop. “Thanks, I guess.”

Seoho grinned. “Let’s play Smash!”

Geonhak frowned. “You only ever come visit to play Smash these days. Do you even care about me?”

“Of course I care about you,” Seoho said, turning on Geonhak’s TV. “Why else would I have gotten you this lovely bread-scented candle entirely unprompted?”

And though Geonhak wasn’t lying about not caring about bread, something about the candle was nice. Maybe it was the cozy bread scent, maybe just the fact that it masked the usual vaguely musty odor of the building. He brought it into his room that night and kept it lit until he was nearly asleep, and lit it immediately the next day when he came home from work. He took to carrying it all around the apartment to the point where a faint bready scent permeated every room. Hwanwoong both loved and hated this; at first he was excited at the idea of a candle that smelled like a baguette, but occasionally he’d come home from the studio and wail about the fact that it smelled like bread everywhere but there was no bread for him to eat. Geonhak learned to tune him out.

And one day, Hwanwoong forgot his keys. He texted Geonhak to let him in, but just to spite him for playing Chungha’s songs until 4am the night prior, Geonhak let him wait outside for a few minutes. When he finally opened their door, Hwanwoong wasn’t annoyed, like Geonhak had hoped – instead his roommate seemed to be having a wonderful time talking to some kid Geonhak had never seen.

“Oh, your roommate is here!” the kid said with a blinding smile.

“Geonhak!” Hwanwoong exclaimed, just as brightly. What a fake. “This is Son Dongmyeong! He’s moving in next door with his twin brother!”

“Like _The Shining_ ,” Geonhak said dumbly.

Dongmyeong laughed. Hwanwoong ignored him. “Hey Dongmyeong, do you and Dongju want to come over for dinner tonight?”

“We’d love to, but I think our parents are coming tonight to see our new apartment, so maybe next time if the offer still stands? It smells really good in there though, are you baking bread?”

“Yeah, we make bread all the time,” Hwanwoong lied for no reason Geonhak could discern.

“That’s really cool!” Dongmyeong’s phone chimed. “That’s probably Dongju, I should go help him set stuff up. It was great to meet you though!” He waved and walked into his apartment.

Hwanwoong pursed his lips and looked Geonhak up and down. “Damn, why couldn’t I get a cute little roommate, instead of you?”

“No one is littler than you, that’s why,” Geonhak said before walking into their apartment and closing and locking the door. He let Hwanwoong knock desperately for another ten minutes before unlocking it. It took Hwanwoong another ten minutes to try opening it, and by that point Geonhak and his candle were safely hiding in his room. Hwanwoong played Chungha until 5am that night.

***

By the next month, Geonhak had all but burned out the candle. As he struggled to light it, he wondered if it would hurt his pride too much to ask Seoho to get another one. The wick was so far down the glass jar that he kept nearly burning his finger trying to get his small lighter to reach.

After the fourth try, he figured he’d need to try something else. Scattered on his bed was some mail, so he grabbed a McDonald’s coupon sheet and rolled it into a long stick. He lit one end of the paper on fire, and gently maneuvered it into the candle jar. The wick started to burn, the fire licked its way slowly up the paper, just a few seconds longer–

The coupons burst into flame.

Geonhak flung them away from him in surprise. They caught a stack of papers at the edge of his desk, all beginning to burn _so quickly–_

He looked frantically around his room and found his oatmeal bowl from the morning. The fire began to climb up the wall. Finally coming to his senses, he ran to the bathroom to get some water, and threw it onto his wall until the fire died down. The fire alarm never rang. Geonhak wasn’t sure whether to be thankful or concerned.

He didn’t have much time to consider it.

“Hey,” a voice said. Geonhak whipped around.

There was a small hole in the wall, right at the corner of his desk, about the size of his palm. And on the other side was a person, staring right at him.

“You’re Hwanwoong-hyung’s roommate, right? You could’ve just said you wanted to talk instead of burning a hole between our rooms.”

“I.” Geonhak gaped. “You.”

“Yeah, me. You. This isn’t a good time to have an existential crisis, you know. All of your stuff is wet.”

Geonhak stared blankly. The kid looked kind of like Dongmyeong, but angrier. That might have been because of the hole in the wall. “You never come over to have dinner,” Geonhak eventually said, and immediately regretted it.

“Yeah I do,” his neighbor said, sounding hurt. “You’re the one who’s never home when I come by. Either way, you just burned a hole into our wall and you’re accusing me of never hanging out? Damn. Good night then.” The kid, Dong… Geonhak wracked is brain. Dongjo? Dongju? He got up from what looked like his own desk and turned off the lights. Geonhak heard the creak of a bed.

It was 6 in the evening. Geonhak stared at his wet carpet.

The next night, Geonhak avoided going into his room for as long as possible. By midnight, he had cleaned every inch of their apartment and finished sending a few emails, and he hoped Dongju was already asleep, as he’d gone to sleep so early the night before.

Dongju was not asleep. He also wasn’t paying any attention to Geonhak, instead enthusiastically typing something on his laptop.

“What are you doing?” Geonhak asked, against his better judgment.

“Writing an article,” Dongju said without looking up from his computer.

“What’s it about?”

Dongju glanced at him through narrow, judging eyes. “Fire safety.”

Geonhak bit his lip. “I’m sorry about the hole,” he said.

Dongju went back to typing, somehow managing to write and speak at the same time. “It’s fine, we can pretend it doesn’t exist until you fix it.” Geonhak processed the dismissal and got ready for bed. A few minutes later, he laid under his blankets, eyes open, oddly transfixed by the small beam of light from his neighbor’s room. It didn’t turn off by the time he fell asleep, hours later.

After the second conversation, Geonhak stopped trying to talk to Dongju. He didn’t want to bother him. But he couldn’t help but peer into the other’s room from time to time, which made him feel like a creep, but there was a hole in his wall and a life being lived on the other side of it, and curiosity overwhelmed his common sense.

One afternoon he got home from work much earlier than before. He made his way into his room to change, and gave a cursory glance at the hole.

Dongju was staring back.

Dongju winked.

Geonhak blinked. He looked away, then looked back, and Dongju was typing away at his laptop again, paying Geonhak no mind.

For the next week, Geonhak kept looking over into Dongju’s room. Half the time, Dongju wasn’t there. It seemed he had no set schedule, was in and out of his own room completely randomly as far as Geonhak could tell.

The other half of the time, Dongju winked.

It was only ever once a day. Dongju would otherwise completely ignore Geonhak, go about his own business as if the hole wasn’t there at all.

And after that week had passed, the night after Geonhak had talked to Hwanwoong and washed all of their dirty dishes, he decided that he should try out his advice.

He walked into his room, sat himself down at his desk with something to do while he waited for Dongju to come home.

Dongju came home. Like a mirror, he sat down at his desk on the other side of the hole, pulled out his laptop, opened it, looked up.

Geonhak blew him a kiss.

Dongju _flinched,_ laughed quietly, shut his laptop and walked right back out of his room.

A sudden wave of both embarrassment and confidence twisting through his gut, Geonhak fled into the living room. Hwanwoong was on the couch, scrolling through his phone.

“Let’s play Mario Kart,” Geonhak said, tossing a controller into the other’s lap.

“Fine,” Hwanwoong replied, but finished watching whatever was on his phone for an agonizingly long minute before picking up the controller.

Hwanwoong won four rounds easily, as Geonhak kept driving off the edge of the road.

“What on earth is wrong, dude,” Hwanwoong spoke up in the middle of their fifth run.

“Nothing,” Geonhak said, driving in the wrong direction.

Hwanwoong beat him three more times before setting down the controller, letting out an exaggerated sigh, and going to his room.

Geonhak considered going after him, but thought better of it, instead trying to race himself on Mario Kart with a controller in each hand for the next hour. He left the volume up high enough to drown out his meaningless concerns in bright music. At this point he wasn’t even sure what he was worried about.

Hwanwoong poked his head out of his room.

“If you don’t turn down the fucking game I swear I’m going to bring someone home every day for the next month and loudly have sex every single night or so help me God.” He slammed his door shut.

Geonhak turned off the TV, knowing that Hwanwoong’s threats were always a gamble on whether he’d follow through or not, and also realizing that it was a bit stupid of him to be camping out in the living room when honestly? Nothing bad had happened.

He made his way back to his room, spirits lifted, when he saw that the hole in the wall had been covered. He peered closely at it. Dongju had taped what looked like a piece of cardboard onto his own wall, neatly covering the opening. On the back of the cardboard, facing Geonhak, was a pink post-it note folded into a heart.

 _Cute,_ Geonhak thought, as he peeled it off and unfolded it.

 _I’ll fucking kill you,_ the note said.


	2. Seoho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> very long awaited update for this bad boy it’s over thrice as long and much worse 😊 big sorry for any mistakes; half of this fic has been edited 8 times and the other half a whopping 0 :))
> 
> important things to know: 1. this chapter begins before the last chapter did, and catches up somewhere in the middle. since i’m organizing by pairing and not passage of time, the chronology’s probably gonna b a little screwy but i’ll do my best to keep it clear! 2. cheonggukjang is a Korean stew made with fermented soybean paste it tastes great but it stinky stinky! 3. theres sum drug talk and sex talk in here but not in a big deal way
> 
> (also yeah I kno sunny is a male dog but shes multifaceted ok)

“Harin’s officially moved out since yesterday,” Seoho said.

“When are you getting a new roommate?” Geonhak asked. The two of them were in Seoho’s apartment, just a floor above Geonhak’s. It looked oddly empty without Harin’s things.

“You’re supposed to ask me how I feel about it,” Seoho chastised.

“Why would I ask you how you feel about it? Didn’t he just move out because he got a job in another city? It’s not like you guys had a falling out or something.”

Seoho smacked his own chest. “I feel so… lonely. Everything’s so empty now. I lost a friend.”

“Hyung. You can just call him.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t understand loss.” Seoho threw his head back and closed his eyes. When Geonhak made no response, he peeked over at him. He was eating all of Seoho’s dried squid.

He smacked Geonhak’s arm. “Hey. Leave me some. I bought that with my own money.”

Geonhak kept eating. “Just giving you time to grieve, hyung.” He popped another string of squid into his mouth. “Wait. What do you mean by your own money? How else would you have gotten it?”

Seoho snatched the Tupperware out of Geonhak’s hands. “Like a smart person, I usually steal all the snacks from work.”

Geonhak just reached over and took another handful. “You’re honestly the worst.”

“You can’t call me the worst while having your _gremlin_ of a roommate. Also, I didn’t hear you complaining all the other times you were eating my stolen snacks. By extension, you’re a thief too. How does it feel?”

“Terrible.” Geonhak rolled his eyes. “And you’re just as gremlin-y as he is,” he added under his breath, but Seoho still heard him clearly. “And why won’t you answer me? When’s your new roommate moving in?”

“Um. He moves in in…” Seoho checked his phone. “About five minutes!”

Geonhak stopped chewing. “Seoho-hyung. What the fuck. Why did you invite me over now? I could’ve come by to meet him later, when he’s not stressed about moving!”

Seoho coughed. “Ah. But you know how it’s courtesy to help someone move into your apartment? I thought we could both offer help! It’s always nice to have another hand on deck.”

“I can’t believe this.” Geonhak stood up. “You honestly. You really just told me to come over to help your roommate, whom I don’t know, move into _your_ apartment? Without letting me know beforehand?”

“Geonhak you have to help me,” Seoho begged. “I’m weak! You work out all the time! What else are you gonna do with all those muscles?”

“At this point, throw you out a window!”

A sharp knock came from the door. Seoho quickly shushed Geonhak and went to open it. A man around their age stood in the doorway, holding a cat.

“Hello, this is Sunny, and I’m Kim Youngjo, your new roommate?” Youngjo looked back and forth between Seoho and Geonhak, confusion clearly written on his face.

Seoho raised his hand helpfully. “You’re mine!” He paused. “Oh. That was a little sexy of an opening line, huh.”

“No,” Youngjo said, “possessiveness isn’t sexy. But it’s nice to meet you.”

Geonhak wheezed from the couch. Seoho wanted to punch the rest of his breath out too, but he plastered on another smile. “Youngjo…hyung? Right? Would you like any help moving in? Geonhak and I–” he glanced behind him to shoot the younger a glare– “are free and can do whatever you need!”

Youngjo smiled, a lot more genuinely than Seoho. Or he was better at faking it. “I think I’ll be fine. My sister’s downstairs and I don’t have too much to bring in. Thank you for the offer though!” He set Sunny on the floor, and walked back out. Sunny immediately walked over to Geonhak and curled up on the couch.

Seoho walked over to where Geonhak was visibly trying to decide whether to pet the cat or not. “You look constipated,” he said.

Geonhak finally placed a hand gently on Sunny’s butt. “I thought only fish and rodents were allowed in this complex,” he whispered, as if not to disturb Sunny’s rest. Despite the consideration, Sunny got up and sat back down again just a little too far for Geonhak to reach.

“She’s an emotional support cat,” Seoho said. “Youngjo told me about her when he first reached out about the apartment.”

“Damn, so she’s a working cat. Full time job.”

Seoho leaned over towards her. “How does it feel to have to work for a living when so many other house cats out there won’t work a day in their lives?” Sunny ignored him.

Geonhak furrowed his brow. “I feel like we should get out of here, let Youngjo-hyung have some space and some peace while he moves in.”

“I’d be down to go somewhere. I can drive us.”

“Fantastic! I have a guest pass for the gym and you’re coming with me right now,” Geonhak said with a smirk.

Seoho felt the blood drain out of his face. “Absolutely not–”

Geonhak manhandled him out the door. “Didn’t you plan on doing physical activity with me today? Youngjo-hyung might not need our help, but we can still get some fitness in.”

Seoho begged and tried to pull himself away, but Geonhak was too strong, and enjoying tormenting Seoho too much.

“Why are you resisting so much? I thought you were fine with exercising! Didn’t you say you used to do some martial art?”

Seoho deflated as they reached his car. Life was cruel. He slid in, and drove himself to his torture.

***

Seoho cursed Geonhak under his breath for the entire morning.

For starters, he woke up, tried to roll out of bed, and landed squarely on the floor because his limbs felt so _heavy,_ and then he thought he was going to die while washing his hair because his arms couldn’t stay up for that long, and then he spilled soymilk all over his shirt.

Granted, the last one had nothing to do with Geonhak. But it felt good to blame him.

Everything felt new, and off. Harin would usually be awake by now, loudly bustling around the apartment to wake himself up. Youngjo was nowhere to be seen, but presumably still in his room, the door slightly ajar. Sunny sat on their kitchen counter watching Seoho’s every move. Youngjo had told him not to worry about her, that she was intelligent and well-behaved and wouldn’t get in his way unless he got in hers. Seoho took that as a threat.

Throwing on a sweater, he headed out. It was an unusually warm November, and despite the soreness clinging to every part of his body, the day dawned pleasantly.

The day continued, however, significantly less pleasantly. Seoho blamed Geonhak again.

“This is Lee Keonhee,” his boss said, bringing some tall freak into his office. “He’s gonna be with us part-time for a month, doing technical writing. I thought I’d put him in here because there’s enough space and I think you’re the next youngest person who works here. Take care of him, okay? Thanks!”

Seoho blinked rapidly at the retreating figure of his boss. Keonhee walked over to the other desk across from him and started putting his things down, looking way too comfortable in a new situation.

“Hey, I’m Lee Seoho.” Seoho said.

“Hey,” Keonhee replied.

Awkwardness stuffed the room. Seoho wondered if he should open a window, but worried that Keonhee might think it was because he thought he smelled bad. “What are you going to be doing here?” he asked instead.

Keonhee got settled into his chair and opened his laptop. “Technical writing, like the boss said. I’m basically interning here this month while uni finishes up, and depending on how it goes I’ll join the team full-time, I guess.”

“Cool.” Seoho bit his lip. “I’m an engineer,” he added.

“Cool.”

Seoho pulled up the project he’d been working on and stared at it blankly for five minutes, listening to the sound of Keonhee typing. He couldn’t focus. He minimized the window. “I have lunch at 1, if you want, I could take you to the cafeteria?”

Keonhee smiled. “That would be nice, thank you,” he said.

They both went back to work. Soon enough, Seoho got back into the swing of things and managed to forget about Keonhee’s presence enough to sing under his breath as he worked. He was making pretty good progress when his phone buzzed. It was a text from Geonhak.

_> hey bitch, it’s woong. stop leaving ur gross clothes behind in our apartment._

Seoho frowned at his phone.

 _> > You have a phone, and you have my number,_ he typed back.

_> deleted it_

_> > Was this really so pressing that you had to text me with Geonhak’s phone while I’m at work?_

Hwanwoong didn’t text back. Neither did Geonhak, the person to blame for all of his problems today. Seoho wasn’t sure why Hwanwoong had his phone in the first place, but he was too annoyed to care.

It was close enough to when he usually ate, and there wasn’t a strict lunchtime enforced in the office, so Seoho closed his laptop and immediately made his way to the restaurant across the street. The only thing he’d packed for lunch was the leftover squid anyways.

He ordered some steamed pork dumplings to eat, and cheonggukjang to go. As he ate the dumplings, he stalked Hwanwoong’s instagram. It was all mirror selfies and dancing videos. He scrolled past all of them, grimacing, until he reached a selfie of him and Geonhak together wearing matching shirts three years ago, and quickly exited the app. Giving it a second thought, he opened it back up and reported one of the videos for being inappropriate.

He went back to the office, hatching a scheme in his head and feeling better than before. Red Velvet played through his earphones and he hummed along, swinging around the doorframe energetically.

He forgot Keonhee was there.

Keonhee looked up and, seeing Seoho, immediately looked back to his computer and started typing furiously. _Whatever,_ Seoho thought, assuming the other was busy on his first day. He went back to his project, still on a nice productivity kick.

An hour or two later, Keonhee packed his things up.

“Leaving?” Seoho asked.

Keonhee didn’t look up from where he was stuffing his folder into his bag.

Seoho wondered if he just didn’t hear him. “Are your hours going to be pretty regular, or are you coming in whenever you don’t have class?”

Keonhee picked up his bag and headed for the door. Clearly ignoring him now.

“Dude,” Seoho pushed, “what’s wrong? Not gonna say bye?”

Keonhee finally looked at him, giving him a withering glance with his lips pressed tightly together. They made eye contact for a second, then Keonhee walked out.

Seoho couldn’t imagine what had happened to make Keonhee so upset, but now he was upset too. He spent the next hour looking at a line of code he couldn’t decipher before realizing he wasn’t coding anything, and the line was a string of gibberish he had typed two days ago when he was pretending to be super busy and stressed so no one would sit at his table in the coffeeshop.

He sighed, leaned back, rubbed his eyes. Damn Geonhak for ruining his day. Oh. Geonhak. Hwanwoong. Seoho had briefly forgotten his plan for later, and remembering, he brightened.

Seoho bust right through Geonhak’s apartment door, correctly assuming it would be left unlocked. “Hey _asshole!”_ He yelled as soon as the door was closed.

Geonhak gave him a confused glance from the kitchen. “Um. What did I do wrong?”

Seoho took off his shoes and stomped in. “Not you, the little bitch.”

“My roommate and _friend,_ Hwanwoong, is not in right now,” Geonhak said, rolling his eyes.

“Your roommate and _ex,_ which I will remind you is a very weird living situation.”

“We only dated for a few months, and not everyone breaks up on bad terms, hyung. It’s behind us and neither of us are hung up about it.”

“Whatever.” Seoho threw his bag onto the couch. “When’s he coming back?”

“I don’t know. Probably within the next hour or so?”

“Perfect.”

Geonhak grabbed his dinner and sat down at his table, still looking confused and a little concerned. “If I knew you were coming over, I would’ve made more food,” he said.

“It’s okay!” Seoho said brightly. “I brought my own. Could I use your microwave to heat it up?”

Geonhak frowned through a mouthful of food. “Of course.”

Seoho grinned and pulled out his phone.

“Are you not…? Going to use the microwave?”

“In a little bit.” Seoho checked the time. “I’m not quite hungry yet.”

Half an hour later, Geonhak finished eating and cleaning up after himself, and joined Seoho on the couch. “Wanna play Smash?” he asked.

Seoho leaped up. “Sorry, I’m super hungry now. I’m gonna go heat up my soup.”

“Um. Okay? Half an hour ago you weren’t hungry.”

“You know, what the stomach wants, the stomach will.”

“I… I don’t know? But okay?” Geonhak booted up the Xbox anyways and started Skyrim.

Seoho walked into the kitchen with his plastic soup tub, sealed with aluminum foil. He popped it into the microwave, gleefully imagining how stinky it would make the kitchen. He wondered if he should save a bit and pour it into Hwanwoong’s bed. No, that would be a bit too cruel. Maybe just clog up his bathroom sink.

Moments later, he heard a bang. From the microwave.

The inside of the microwave was on fire.

“ _Shit!”_ Seoho quickly opened the microwave, promptly spilling all the cheonggukjang all over the stovetop. He had to leap back to not get it all over himself. The soup dripped onto the floor almost in slow motion, as if to mock him.

“ _What the hell happened?”_ Geonhak yelled. Seoho hadn’t even noticed him come into the kitchen.

“I don’t know! I was just warming up dinner!”

Geonhak peered at the mess. “You. You didn’t microwave the foil. Right? You wouldn’t do that. Right?”

Seoho grimaced.

Geonhak heaved a sigh, rubbing his knuckles against his eyelids.

“I’m sorry.”

“Get out.”

***

Youngjo came home late that night. Seoho was still moping around the living room, holding Sunny flush against his chest. Youngjo coughed.

Seoho let out a sound of surprise and quickly set down the cat.

Youngjo looked amused. “It’s fine, she doesn’t mind cuddling as long as you hold her butt.”

Seoho sighed. “I just needed some emotional support,” he said.

“Well, that’s what she’s for,” Youngjo said. He set down his things. “What happened today that has you so down? Or is this a recurring nightly brooding?”

“No, don’t worry, it’s not.” Seoho picked Sunny up again. “It’s a lot of stupid things. I’m sure you won’t want to hear it.”

Youngjo went to the kitchen and tinkered around. “I want to hear it,” he said. A pleasant coffee scent began to fill the apartment. “Do you want any coffee?”

“No thanks, I need to get up early tomorrow morning. But are you sure? I mean. We barely know each other. I don’t want to bother you. And I don’t want to make you think I’m weird.”

Youngjo sat down at the kitchen table with two steaming mugs. “Everyone’s weird. Just come sit and talk. It’s clearly bothering you.”

Seoho brought Sunny over to the table. She immediately leaped out of his arms and into her owner’s lap. Youngjo laughed a little as he slid a cup of some warm-smelling tea across the table.

“I wasn’t sure if you liked tea, but this is Sleepytime. I think it’s mostly chamomile? It always warms me up and calms me down.”

Seoho took a sip. “It’s good,” he said, “thank you. But you’re gonna really laugh now when you hear what’s wrong. It’s really not serious.”

“I have a lot of tea. Just go on.”

“I. Well. I woke up this morning, really sore, because Geonhak dragged me to the gym yesterday. And I got to work, and there’s this new intern that just started who’s sharing my desk basically. And that’s fine! But after lunch he started being really pissy? And he wouldn’t respond to anything I said to him anymore…” Seoho trailed off. “This is stupid.”

Youngjo sipped his coffee. “It’s not stupid.”

“Okay… Then. Um. Oh. In the middle of the day Hwanwoong, Geonhak’s bitch of a roommate, sent me a stupid text. So to get back at him– Wait. This makes me seem like a shitty person.”

Youngjo stayed silent, gently petting Sunny.

“You have to promise not to judge me,” Seoho said, but kept talking without waiting for a response. “Anyways. To get back at him I bought cheonggukjang for dinner, so I could heat it up in their apartment and make it stinky.”

Youngjo knit his brows together. “That doesn’t seem very fair to Geonhak.”

Seoho chuckled. “Don’t worry, it gets worse. So, I went to their apartment, and as close as I could get to when Hwanwoong would be coming home, I microwaved the soup. But I left. Um. I left the foil on the container. And I exploded stinky soup all over their kitchen.”

“What…did you do then?”

“Geonhak told me to get out, so I came home.”

Youngjo blinked at him before shaking his head as if to clear it. “With your new co-worker, that sounds frustrating. But unless you know why, I don’t know if you should press it yet. You just met him, and something personal could have happened. It might not have anything to do with you.”

“I guess.”

“But the microwave thing… I… feel like you should’ve stayed to help Geonhak clean up.”

“But he told me to leave!”

“Yeah, I know. But if you offered him help, he might’ve taken it. And you might not be feeling so guilty. That’s what’s really keeping you up, right?”

Seoho took a gulp of tea. It was still hot, and burned a little going down. He grimaced. “I. Now that you put it that way. Yeah. I think so.”

“Would it make you feel better to do something to make up for it? Obviously you don’t know what’s going on with Keonhee. But you could do something for Geonhak.”

“Yeah, I think that would be good. Honestly, he’s probably over it by now. He’s really too nice.”

“He sounds like a really good friend.” Youngjo got up to rinse out his mug. “I was going to go to the mall tomorrow. I can go later in the day, if you want to come with me when you’re done with whatever you’re doing in the morning?”

“That’s a great idea. I have a work meeting but nothing else, so I should be back by the afternoon?”

“Sounds good. We can meet here and I’ll drive us over.”

Seoho drank the dregs of his tea. “You’re really good at this whole. Therapist to your shitty roommate thing. Are you? A therapist, that is.”

Youngjo laughed. “You’re not a shitty roommate, at least not yet. I was just an RA in college. And no, no professional therapy knowledge. I’m just a music producer.”

“Oh that’s even cooler. We should–” Seoho broke into a yawn. “We should talk about that sometime.

“We can do that. For now, though, you should go to sleep.”

“God, hyung, you’re just like Geonhak. You’re both too nice for your own good.” By this point Seoho was mumbling, half asleep. He stumbled around the kitchen to put away his mug. “Don’t let people walk over you,” he said, near incoherent.

“It’s not weak to be kind,” Youngjo said softly, before heading to his room.

***

Shivering from the cold, Seoho and Youngjo walked into the mall.

“Do you have an idea of what you want to get Geonhak?” Youngjo asked.

Seoho pursed his lips. “Maybe… disinfecting spray?”

Youngjo whipped his head around, eyebrows comically furrowed. _“What?”_

“I don’t know, is that a bad idea?” Seoho bit his tongue in thought. “What about. Antibacterial wipes.”

“Please tell me your thought process right now,” Youngjo said, hiding his mouth behind a hand red from cold.

“I spilled stinky food in his apartment, so I should get him stuff to clean, right?”

“Seoho… cleaning supplies aren’t really… presents…”

“Oh!” Seoho marched over to a map, only half-registering Youngjo’s words. “I’ll get him a candle! Candles get rid of stink.” He heard Youngjo walk up behind him.

“I guess a candle’s fine…”

They made their way over to the candle store, Seoho with an extra spring in his step. A candle! How thoughtful of him. Candles were like the poster child of housewarming. Although Geonhak had moved into the apartment two years ago.

Before they even stepped inside, a pleasant mix of fall and Christmas scents washed over Seoho. November, the romantic bridge between the last dregs of autumn and the first breaths of winter. Seoho made a beeline for the big display and began to smell every single candle.

Youngjo stood beside him, peering at each label thoroughly before choosing one to sniff. He wrinkled his nose at the purple one in his hands.

“What kind of scents does Geonhak like?”

Seoho shrugged. “He likes chicken.”

Youngjo placed the candle down and clasped his hands together. “You can’t get him a chicken-scented candle,” he said, sounding a bit frustrated.

“You never know.” Seoho went back to smelling all the candles.

Youngjo picked up a dark green candle. “What about… _Twilight in Pine Forest?”_

Seoho leaned over to smell it. He huffed. “You can’t get something that smells like manly man for Geonhak.”

“Why not? He seems manly man enough?”

“Yeah that’s the problem.” Seoho finished going through the display and walked further into the store, Youngjo following along. “We wouldn’t want any potential lovers coming over and seeing he isn’t multifaceted.”

Youngjo sighed from somewhere behind him. Seoho chose to ignore it, assuming it was just from smelling too many things.

He traced a finger along all the candles in all their lovely colors. He passed the out-of-season ones, all the heavy floral scents, a whole column dedicated to cherry blossoms, a line of variations on vanilla. And then he saw it. All the way in the back–

_French Baguette._

He waved Youngjo over. “Look! It’s a chicken candle!”

Youngjo walked up. He sniffed the candle, frowned, then looked at the label. “This… this is bread-scented.”

“Yeah!”

“How is that a chicken candle?”

Seoho smiled brightly. “You know!”

Youngjo rubbed his brow. “I don’t.”

“It’s in the spirit of a chicken-scented candle. This is the one. Geonhak’s gonna love it!” Seoho clutched it tightly in his hands, already imagining Geonhak’s grateful face.

(They then spent three hours going through countless clothing stores, since Youngjo had apparently donated half of his clothes before moving, and he needed new jackets. Sometime around the second hour, Seoho sat on the floor by the dressing room, stretching his sore ankles. Youngjo walked out in an outfit that looked suspiciously similar to the ten other outfits prior.

“How’s this one?” he asked.

Seoho sighed. “It looks the same as the other ones, hyung. Just pick the cheapest one and let’s go.”

Youngjo narrowed his eyes at him. “Listen. Have you ever seen me in a bad outfit.”

“I’ve known you for three days I’ve only seen you in three outfits.”

“But have any of them been _bad.”_

“…no?”

Youngjo twirled, then struck a stupid pose. “Okay, then either help me pick between these or be quiet.”

They both agreed never to shop together again.)

(On the bright side, Geonhak loved the gift. He didn’t say he loved it, of course, but Seoho could tell. Best friend telepathy.)

***

Seoho peeked into his office before walking in to check if Keonhee had clocked in yet. He hadn’t. Seoho shook his head and settled at his desk, wishing the other would never show.

He showed. Carrying two large pizzas.

Seoho watched him struggle a bit to put them down without dropping his bag or his napkins. He wasn’t sure whether to make conversation, and by the time he realized he could’ve offered to help, Keonhee had already set the pizzas under his desk and pulled out his laptop.

“Good morning,” Seoho tried.

“Hello,” Keonhee said, avoiding eye contact.

Well, a response was better than nothing. “How are you?”

“Fine.”

 _Whatever._ Seoho decided to leave him alone. He went back to his own work, but not even his bubblegum girl group playlist could keep him motivated.

It was the scent of pizza. Keonhee’s pizzas, probably still warm, just perfumed the office in cheesy tomato goodness. Seoho sniffed the air. Toppings, maybe meat? A hint of tanginess, pickles? Banana peppers? He faceplanted into his hands.

What did Keonhee have two whole pizzas for anyways? He was clearly still upset with Seoho, and he just came in three days ago, he couldn’t already have friends in the office to bring food for. Who would he even know? The boss? He wasn’t in today. Seoho’s stomach grumbled.

Keonhee stood up, his chair’s wheels squeaking as they rolled back into the carpet. “I’m going to the bathroom. Don’t you dare take any pizza.”

Seoho threw his hands up. “What do you see me as? I wouldn’t do that.”

“Boss warned me you were the biggest snack-stealer here.” Keonhee whipped around and stomped out.

Seoho tried plugging his earphones into his nose.

Keonhee returned quickly, looking at Seoho with narrowed eyes as he sat back down. He didn’t check the pizzas, though, and Seoho wondered if it would’ve been worth stealing a slice.

“Why do you even have two pizzas?” Seoho exclaimed, not able to hold it in. One of his earphones fell out of his nose. _Shit,_ he’d forgotten he’d plugged them up there. He pulled the other one out, hiding the lower half of his face in shame.

Keonhee waited until he had wiped them off on his shirt before answering. “I’m going to eat them.”

Seoho frowned. “You have two entire pizzas.”

“Yes, and I’m going to eat them.”

“Two entire pizzas.”

“I’m going to eat two pizzas! I thought I was being clear!” Keonhee flipped his laptop open again, rolling his eyes. “I thought you had to be smart to work here.”

Seoho didn’t even register the dig. “You can eat two whole pizzas?”

“I’ll give Hyungu a slice or two.”

“That’s barely a dent on two large pizzas!”

“They’re medium pizzas. Stop talking to me.” Keonhee put on his headphones.

Seoho glared at him, but Keonhee was now immersed in his music, bopping his head as he tapped furiously on his computer. Seoho suspected it was an act. He could never open his laptop and immediately get back into whatever he had been working on, and he didn’t like thinking that Keonhee was better than him at anything.

Lunchtime finally arrived. Seoho couldn’t remember any other day that waiting for food had been so trying. He practically skipped to the cafeteria and bought two egg sandwiches, scarfing down the first in record time.

He wasn’t a huge fan of eating in the cafeteria, so he picked up his second sandwich and made his way to the exit. He was just about to walk back to his office when he spotted a familiar tall figure walking down a different hallway, pizzas in hand.

Losing any semblance of self-control, Seoho followed him.

He managed to tail him, unseen, to the fourth floor. Keonhee walked past a few doors before going into the largest office. Office 406. A sticky note that read _Kang Hyungu_ sat pasted on the bottom of the sign of the workers’ names. He must be that other intern that arrived last month. Seoho couldn’t remember ever having talked to him.

He carefully slipped into the office too, hiding himself at the emptiest-looking cubicle. He couldn’t see Keonhee behind the dividers, but he could hear him. Pretty decent spying spot.

“How are you liking it here?” said a voice Seoho didn’t recognize. Hyungu, probably.

“It’s fine. The work is good, and I think the company is a good fit for me,” Keonhee said.

Some chewing. “Have you made any friends yet?”

“No, I’ve only been here for three days. The only other person I see is my officemate.”

“Who’s that again? Is he cool?”

“Lee Seoho. And I don’t know, I don’t know him very well.” Seoho blinked in surprise. He was sure Keonhee was going to say something mean about him.

“I miss having you in all my classes,” Hyungu said.

“Me too! I thought I was going to have fun taking cool classes this semester but all of them are pretty boring…” Keonhee launched into an in-depth explanation of each of his university courses for a solid ten minutes. Hyungu said nothing, and if not for the occasional hum, Seoho would’ve thought Keonhee was talking to himself.

Seoho snapped back to focus when he heard the two of them shuffling around. Lunch break was almost over, so they were probably heading out soon.

“Excuse me,” said a voice from right behind him, tapping his shoulder.

Seoho jumped.

“This is my desk,” the older woman said, pointing at the cubicle he was hiding in.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t touch anything, I’ll be out of your hair. Please don’t say anything,” Seoho whispered frantically, then sprinted out of the room.

Somehow he managed to get all the way back down to his own office without being seen. He took a moment to send prayers to every deity he knew, which didn’t take long. He only knew two.

Just as Keonhee and Hyungu approached, Seoho pulled out a notebook and flipped it to a random page with lots of writing to seem like he had been busy at work. The two men paused at the door, just out of sight.

“…and my favorite thing about myself is my mouth. I like that I can do lots of things with my mouth. I can sing, I can talk forever, I can eat a lot, I can eat a lot at once – oh, we’re here. Thanks for joining me for lunch!”

Seoho scoffed under his breath. “Wow, you have a big mouth. Congrats, you can fit more than one dick in there at once.” He shut his notebook and looked up.

Keonhee looked back at him.

Seoho’s face burned.

Keonhee blinked. “What the hell is your problem?”

“I’m sorry, I. I didn’t mean it. I just. Uh. I meant… like…”

“You like thinking about me sucking dick?” Keonhee sneered. “Didn’t think so. Eat it, asshole.” He rummaged through his bag and took out a set of cheap folders and stood them up between their desks, in rainbow order.

Except the orange and yellow folders were mixed up. Seoho, paragon of self-control today, reached over and tried to switch them.

Instead, he knocked the whole setup down.

Keonhee looked at him silently. He collected all his folders, not breaking eye contact, and shoved them roughly into his bag. And just walked out.

***

A few days later. Geonhak invited Seoho and Youngjo over for dinner. Seoho, not knowing when Youngjo would make it home, decided to leave a note on their table with Geonhak’s apartment number and head down early.

Which might have been a mistake.

Seoho could hear their voices from outside the apartment. He considered going back to his room and waiting for Youngjo, but he had already traveled the two floors downstairs to get here, and he couldn’t imagine Geonhak and Hwanwoong would be fighting about something _that_ serious.

Right?

He tried the door before knocking, and it opened smoothly and silently like magic.

“You said medium load I medium loaded!” Hwanwoong’s voice traveled from the back of the apartment. Seoho froze.

“The medium load wasn’t the problem, the problem was that it was hot!” Geonhak yelled back.

“How do I make the load not hot! All loads are hot!”

“Are you an actual dumbass?”

Seoho peered into the hallway, seeing the two of them, arms crossed, faces twisted in irritation. Except it was such an odd sight, and they weren’t really good at looking angry, and it seemed more like two chickens having their first fight.

Seoho cleared his throat.

The two of them turned so fast Seoho shot his arms up in surrender.

“Hey… what’s up?”

Geonhak rolled his eyes. “Hwanwoong did the laundry wrong again.”

Seoho deflated.

Geonhak turned around to look at the youngest. “You make the load not hot by turning the knob labeled temperature from hot to _warm.”_

Hwanwoong huffed. “I’m too sexy to be smart.”

Geonhak’s eyebrows shot up. “First of all, you’re a university student, second of all, _if you ruin all your clothes you won’t have any sexy outfits to wear–”_

“Guys!” Seoho interrupted, “What the hell. We all know Hwanwoong’s a dumbass you can’t really fault him for it at this point, Geonhak–”

“Yeah!” Hwanwoong said. “Wait.”

“–and Youngjo-hyung’s coming over soon so y’all should quit it,” Seoho finished.

Geonhak grimaced. “Fine. We’ll deal with the laundry later.”

Hwanwoong squinted at Seoho. “Oh, that reminds me.” He walked over to the door and put his shoes on. “I’ll be right back. I left my lube in the car.” He trotted out.

Seoho looked at Geonhak, mouth set in a tight line. “Why did seeing _me_ remind Hwanwoong that he left his lube in the car?”

“How am I supposed to know? And if I did, would you want an answer?”

Seoho closed his eyes. “I guess not.”

Geonhak made his way over to the kitchen, giving the pot on the stove a stir. Seoho now registered how good it smelled in the house, a warm garlicky curry. And a faint smell of bread.

“Why’d you come without Youngjo-hyung?” Geonhak asked, throwing some spices into the pot.

“We haven’t talked extensively in a while. I have life updates.”

A knock on the door stopped Seoho from continuing. Geonhak cocked his head at it.

“Did Hwanwoong forget his keys?” Seoho asked.

“No, that’s too polite of a knock to be him.”

Seoho opened it.

“Sorry if I’m too early,” Youngjo said, hesitating at the entrance, “I got home earlier than expected and you were already gone.”

“You’re all good.” Seoho gestured him in. “Geonhak, Youngjo-hyung’s here!” he yelled into the kitchen.

Geonhak came out in a poof of curry smell. “Hi Youngjo-hyung, dinner’s not ready yet but Seoho-hyung can turn on the Xbox for you while you wait.”

Seoho pulled Youngjo to the couch. “Geonhakie likes cooking alone, so it’s Smash time for us!”

Youngjo shot a questioning look into the kitchen but followed him and sat down. Seoho handed him a controller and booted up the game just as Hwanwoong barged back inside, clutching a large bottle of lube. His gaze snapped to Youngjo.

“Well hello, beautiful,” he said, mouth twisted into a cloying smirk. Seoho glared at him.

“Hello, I’m Kim Youngjo, Seoho’s new roommate.” Youngjo smiled benignly, not noticing the lube. Or deliberately ignoring it, which Seoho could respect.

“Yeo Hwanwoong. But you can call be babe.”

Seoho rolled up his sleeves to punch him if he got any closer. “Hwanwoong, go set the table!” Geonhak yelled, saving them all from the drama.

Surprisingly, dinner passed uneventfully. Seoho tried his best to ignore Hwanwoong blatantly flirting with Youngjo, which was pretty easy thanks to Geonhak’s riveting story of how he burnt a hole into his wall. Seoho let him know which store he bought the candle from. For a moment he considered buying Geonhak a new one, but candles from candle stores were unexpectedly expensive and he didn’t have a candle budget.

After dinner, they made their way into the living room one by one to play video games. Seoho and Geonhak shared a look watching Youngjo patter after Hwanwoong to the couch and plop down next to him, sparing no attention for the other two.

Seoho narrowed his eyes. Geonhak gave a small warning head-shake.

“Does anyone want edibles?” Seoho asked the room, wracking his brain for something to distract Youngjo.

Geonhak raised his eyebrows. “What kind?”

“I bought some gummies last week.”

“I thought you knew how to make them,” Hwanwoong accused, insufferable look on his face.

“I _do,”_ Seoho said, always jumping to defend himself no matter how stupid the situation, “I just don’t have any weed in the house right now. Just a bunch of cocaine.”

Youngjo finally spoke up, looking concerned. “Just how much cocaine is a bunch of cocaine?”

“Around… four grams.”

Hwanwoong frowned. “Why do you _only_ have cocaine?”

“That’s like, a hundred doses!” Geonhak exclaimed, looking down at his hands. Seoho wasn’t sure how he was doing the math on just ten fingers, but the younger was close to right for once so he didn’t point it out.

“What the hell?” Hwanwoong said.

Seoho crossed his arms. “It’s my emergency cocaine!”

Geonhak loudly sucked in a breath. “What the _fuck_ is emergency cocaine?”

Youngjo peeled away from Hwanwoong on the couch. Goal achieved, Seoho supposed. “Are you okay? Are you addicted?” the eldest asked. Well, new problem.

Seoho brushed him off. “No, I’ve only done cocaine once a few ago.”

Youngjo seemed to relax slightly. “Then why… do you have emergency cocaine?”

“In case of an emergency!”

Hwanwoong glanced over at where Youngjo wasn’t paying attention to him anymore, then back to Seoho, irritation palpable. “Sounds stupid. And fake.”

“Well,” Seoho seethed, “don’t come crying at my door when you have an emergency and need cocaine.”

Hwanwoong cocked his head at him. “You know what? Bet. I bet that will literally never happen.” He got up, throwing a sour look over his shoulder at Seoho, and disappeared into his room.

Youngjo looked around the room, concerned. “Um. I’ll go back to our apartment now, I guess?” He patted Geonhak on the shoulder. “Thanks so much for dinner, it was really good. You guys should come over next time!” He hurried out before anyone could stop him.

Geonhak made a face at Seoho.

Seoho shrugged. “You were on the same page as me.”

“After that I’m not sure we were.”

Seoho nudged Geonhak on his way to sit down. “Listen. Youngjo-hyung’s the nicest person I’ve ever met and I don’t want Hwanwoong anywhere near him. I know you guys are friends but you know what I mean.”

Geonhak rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. “I’ll figure it out, I promise.” He turned on the TV. “Didn’t you say you had life updates?”

“Oh. Yeah. You remember Keonhee, right?”

“Yep, you’ve been mentioning him in every conversation we have.”

Seoho ignored the comment and filled him in on Keonhee’s two pizzas. Geonhak nodded along, mumbling and gasping at all the right times. Seoho trailed off as he slowly got fixated on the game, growing competitive. Geonhak was better than him, but if Seoho found the right character he was sure he could beat him at least once.

He picked Kirby, Geonhak raising an eyebrow at the choice. Seoho puffed his cheeks out in an imitation of the pink character. Geonhak shoved him.

Then he beat him again.

Seoho pouted and put down the controller. “It’s not fair. I’m…”

“You’re what? What’s your excuse this time?” Geonhak egged him on, digging an elbow into his side.

Seoho stared at the screen, tuning Geonhak out. Kirby bounced back and forth in its idle animation, all pink and bright eyed and big mouthed–

Big mouth?

“I can’t stop thinking about Keonhee sucking dick.”

Geonhak closed his eyes. Put down his controller. Clenched his hands into fists, before relaxing them and getting up to turn off the TV.

“Why… why would you tell me that?” he said, looking wretched.

“I– Kirby reminded me!”

At that, Geonhak looked even worse. “You’re a freak, and I’m going to bed. Lock the door on your way out.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and walked to his room, shutting the door.

Seoho wondered why this seemed to be happening so frequently these days.

***

Keonhee wore tight pants to work.

Seoho had never noticed how long Keonhee’s legs were. The two of them had apparently, without prior discussion, settled for an uncomfortable silence. Which, logically should have made it easier to ignore the other. But Seoho found himself looking at Keonhee’s legs all day, which led to looking at his ass, which wasn’t that great of an ass anyways, but he kept looking at it.

Keonhee might have noticed.

Seoho decided to hole himself up at his desk. He fished out an old pack of gummy bears he’d lost in his bag a few months ago and chewed through them slowly for lunch. His stomach growled, but he didn’t want to run into Keonhee outside the safe zone of their office. Or that lady from the desk he used to spy on Keonhee. Or his boss, who might ask about Keonhee.

Seoho gave himself a headache.

It only got worse as Keonhee’s loud laughter reached him from down the hall as the taller made his way back after lunch. The responding voice didn’t sound like who was it? Hyun-something, the other intern. Which meant Keonhee was making new friends in the office. Another thing he did better than Seoho.

“Slenderman-looking ass,” he mumbled under his breath as Keonhee rounded the corner. Seoho paled.

Keonhee’s face fell. “I am a slender man, and please don’t look at my ass,” he said, voice carefully neutral.

Seoho felt his face burning. “I’m not looking at your ass it’s not that nice anyways,” he blurted.

Keonhee sat at his desk, frown deepening. “Listen, dude. I’m trying to be civil here, because I know you’re only acting like this because you’re into me.”

Seoho sputtered. “Excuse me? I’m not– I’m not into you! Why would you think that?”

Keonhee sighed as he pulled out his work. “Okay, you’re not into me. That’s fine. I’ll just now assume you act the way you do because you’re just a rude, immature asshole.”

Seoho fell silent. Keonhee went straight back to work, looking unbothered by their exchange. A few hours in, Seoho’s headache showed no signs of subsiding and he groaned, rubbing his temples with his fingers. He checked the time. It was almost 4, which meant Keonhee would be leaving soon. At least that was a positive, right? Seoho couldn’t find himself to feel good about it.

He only felt worse when, on the way out, Keonhee wordlessly dropped a small bottle of ibuprofen on his desk.

Seoho made a beeline for Geonhak’s apartment after work.

Fortunately, the door was unlocked. Unfortunately, Geonhak wasn’t home. Even more unfortunately, Hwanwoong was.

The kid was fixing himself a sandwich in the kitchen, hopping back and forth between his legs like he had his own idle animation. He didn’t notice Seoho walk in.

“Where’s Geonhak?” Seoho asked.

Hwanwoong jumped. He turned around. “Are you not going to say hi?”

“Why would I say hi to you?”

“That’s… what people do?”

Seoho rolled his eyes.

Hwanwoong sighed. “Geonhakie-hyung is meeting an editor in person for his article. Something you might know about if you asked him about his life.”

“Stop being insufferable.” Seoho took off his shoes and sat down at the dining table. “Oh, that reminds me. Stop flirting with Youngjo-hyung.”

Hwanwoong brought his sandwich to the table and sat across from Seoho. “I’m not being insufferable, and who are you to tell me what to do?”

“Youngjo-hyung is nice, and gentle, and he’s an _artist,_ and you’re going to be a bad influence with you being, you know…” Seoho gestured at the entirety of Hwanwoong.

The younger rolled his eyes. “Youngjo-hyung is an adult, and you’ve known him for less than a month. I don’t think he needs you telling people how to act around him behind his back. Unless I’m mistaken and you told him you were coming over to threaten me?”

“I can threaten way better than that,” Seoho said, grimacing.

Geonhak walked in, baffled expression forming as he took in the scene in front of him. “Why are you guys both here if you don’t like each other?”

“I like Seoho-hyung,” Hwanwoong said.

“I’m just trying to be accepting of the fact that sometimes being a bitch is incurable,” Seoho said at the same time.

Geonhak looked just about ready to break his own fingers off. Hwanwoong got up, uneaten sandwich in hand, slinging a gym bag over his other shoulder. “No need to throw yourself out a window, hyung. I’m on my way out to teach a class.” He smiled at Geonhak as he walked past.

Geonhak made a face at Seoho as soon as Hwanwoong was gone. “What is it now.”

Hwanwoong’s words bumped around Seoho’s brain, filling him with retroactive guilt. “Nothing! What’s this article you’re writing?”

Geonhak came over to sit in the chair Hwanwoong had just vacated. “I’m partnering with the University’s writing department for a feature article about the fact that it’s growing more common for employers not to look for particular majors for jobs right out of college. It’s probably the biggest article I’ve written yet, and it’s being edited right now.”

“Oh, congratulations!” Seoho’s guilt only grew bigger. “Sorry I didn’t ever ask you about it.”

“That’s fine, I talk about it enough with Hwanwoong and my editor.” Geonhak propped his head on his hand. “Now I _know_ you came here about something specific, so tell me.”

“It’s stupid.”

“When has that ever stopped you?”

Seoho sighed in defeat. “Keonhee thinks I’m into him.”

Geonhak frowned. “So? Aren’t you?”

“No! Why would you think that too!”

“You literally told me like last week that you couldn’t stop thinking about him sucking your dick!”

“I didn’t say I couldn’t stop thinking about him sucking _my_ dick I just said sucking dick in general!”

Geonhak blinked rapidly. “How does that change anything?”

“It’s because I was thinking about his mouth!”

“Hyung, you’re just digging yourself into a hole.”

Seoho scratched his head, grumbling.

Geonhak clicked his tongue. “It’s okay to have a crush on someone, hyung. As long as Keonhee’s not like. A teenager or something.”

“I don’t have a crush on him! And he said he’s about to graduate uni?” Seoho tried to redirect the conversation. “So he’s the same age as Hwanwoong. Do you think they know each other?”

“I don’t know, is he hot?”

“No!” Seoho exclaimed, too loudly. “He kind of looks like that annoying orange thing that used to be popular. What does being hot have to do with anything anyways?”

Geonhak shrugged. “Hwanwoong says he only hangs out with hot people.”

“Of course he does,” Seoho muttered, “he’s a shallow prick. Do you know he deleted my number? Last week he ruined my day because he texted me some shit with your phone, which, why did he have your phone in the first place? That was Keonhee’s first day…”

Seoho gasped.

“Oh my god. I forgot to get lunch with Keonhee. On his first day, after I promised. That’s why he’s been so pissed. I suck. Oh my god.”

He begged Geonhak to walk him through every step of making that curry again. Geonhak, lovely Geonhak, obliged.

The next day, Seoho found himself not dreading work for the first time in ages. He clutched a cute green lunchbox in his hands, stacked with rice, curry, and kimbap that he rolled himself. It was a little ugly, but it was cute, and it was thoughtful, and he couldn’t wait to mend this weird relationship with his coworker.

Just a coworker. No crush.

Keonhee walked in, as long-legged and flat-assed as usual. Seoho vibrated with excitement, but he had to hold it in until lunchtime, for a fun romantic surprise. Wait, no, not romantic. Fun coworker surprise.

He hummed all morning, setting all his music on shuffle, not even the sad songs getting him down. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this productive. Life was so beautiful.

Lunchtime rolled along, just in time before Seoho combusted with anticipation. At 12:59pm, he watched the clock with focused eyes, jumping out of his seat the moment the second-hand crossed the mark.

“Keonhee!” he announced, thankful it was just them in their small office room. “I brought you lunch!” He brandished the lunchbox in his hands, turning it in his hands so Keonhee could see the cute frog designs on the sides.

Keonhee frowned. Wait, what? Keonhee wasn’t supposed to frown.

“Why?”

Seoho set the box down between them and clasped his hands together in the universal apology gesture. “Because, on your first day, I promised I’d get lunch with you and then stuff happened and I forgot. Which was shitty. So here’s an apology lunch?”

Keonhee pursed his lips, looking at the lunchbox. He hesitantly put a hand on it for a few seconds before pushing it back towards Seoho. “I mean, this is nice,” he said, pushing his bangs out of his face, “but I’m over you forgetting to take me to the café. I found it on my own fine enough.”

“Then why are you upset with me all the time?”

Keonhee raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you seriously asking this?”

Seoho stared blankly at him.

Keonhee stood up, looking down at Seoho from his slenderman height. “Honestly? I just think you’re annoying. You go out of your way to be rude to me all the time, you don’t respect me, you won’t stop singing under your breath, we _get_ it, you can sing, so can half the population.” He tossed Seoho a bitter look as he walked towards the door. “I don’t need an apology. You just need to fix your character.”

Seoho watched him leave. Probably to go eat with all the new friends he had.

Had he really been that terrible? Maybe he didn’t have a bunch of friends in the office because he was such a terrible person. Thinking about it left a bad taste in his mouth.

His stomach growled. Fixing his character was a problem for later.

At least he had lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> everyone please send prayers to kim geonhak hes fine but all his friends SUCK ……
> 
> lol so the seodo demon hunting fic was actually just an edgy spoiler for this main course hehe. second big sorry bc rereading this it's truly wack but i spent way too long on it so its getting posted i'd promise the next chap will be more timely and better but i cant promise that in good faith :/
> 
> i made a [curiouscat](http://curiouscat.me/oorrrt)! blease talk 2 me on there hehe
> 
> edit: [twt](http://twitter.com/keonfeet)


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